While the media has focused on how Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will treat history in his speech to Congress next week, another historic development should occur days before Abe reaches the podium. Monday, US and Japanese officials are expected to approve a major revision of the Guidelines for US-Japan Defense Cooperation – the third in the alliance’s history.

The result of intense negotiations since October 2013, the 2015 Guidelines revision is intended to ensure that bilateral security and defense cooperation reflects changes to the regional and global security environment since the Guidelineswere last revised in 1997. It will sketch out a comprehensive vision for a “full partners[hip],” including deepened and expanded bilateral defense and security cooperation, more “effective, efficient, and seamless alliance response” to threats above and below the threshold of “armed attack”; a standing alliance coordination mechanism designed to be more timely, flexible, and responsive; and enhanced security cooperation with other regional partners “to advance shared objectives and values.” With Japan’s July 2014 Cabinet Resolution on collective self-defense, the 2015 Guidelines will shape major security legislation to be introduced to the Diet in mid-May. …